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If we have been able to send people in the moon, build airplanes, computers, cell phones, televisions etc, then we must have been able to wipe poverty from the face of the earth if we so wanted. If we have not done it up to now, it is not by lack of resources or ideas, it is simply because we have not been able to mobilize, focus and commit ourselves toward a great common goal to benefit all. (Jean Jacques Mbuyamba Bukasa, FAPI Africa founder and Chairman)
Poverty in Africa requires urgent intervention
Between 1981 and 2001, a period of dramatic transformation in Asia and other parts of the world, the number of people living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, nearly doubled, rising from 164 million to more than 300 million people. The year 2015 set by the UN for halving poverty in Africa was pushed back to 2147 with the view that if the trend noticed continued poverty would never be halved in Africa. (Statement by Mark Malloch Brown, UNDP Administrator)
Fighting poverty requires acting on al interlocking and underlying causes of poverty
Poverty concerns income and assets but it is about much else besides. It concerns health, life expectancy, diet, shelter, education, security, access to vital resources, and other aspect of living standards. If aid is to attack deprivation, then it needs to act on all the interlocking and underlying causes. Attending to easier while ignoring others builds un-sustainability into the design of the programs at the outset. We need to hence nutrition and health projects to combat physical weakness; roads, telecommunications and education to combat isolation; disaster preparedness and crop insurance to combat vulnerability, and income generation to combat poverty must be combined with the redistribution of assets; freedom of political and trade union association; legislation to insure human rights; programs to elevate the status (as well as income) of women, and environmental protection.?( John Clark, Author of the book "Democratising development")
Saving ability breaks the circle of poverty
Poor countries and poor people are trapped in poverty because they are too poor to save and invest at the same rate. (The report by the Executive Board of the UNDP and UNFP)
Small (village based) enterprises are the key players in the
development of poor countries
The Report by the UN Commission on the Private Sector and Development recommends that any government seeking to lift their people from chronic conditions of poverty must focus on the conditions that will allow small businesses and the informal, village-based micro-enterprises to flourish. They are the key players in the development effort, creating local employment, paying wages and meeting local demand. The report also focuses on knowledge and acquisition of skills as crucial for economies
People are at the center of true development
Development is not a commodity to be weighed or measured by GNP statistics. It is a process of change that enables people to take charge of their own destiny and realize their full potential. It requires building up in the people the confidence, skills, assets and freedoms necessary to achieve this goal. (John Clark- Democratizing Development) | 
